Personally, I do not feel that strongly about the fate of Queen's Pier - the Star Ferry pier was historically more significant. But I do feel strongly about the mix of arrogance, ignorance and corruption (yes, corruption) displayed by the senior bureaucracy over so-called development projects. Queen's Pier is the most conspicuous at present, but similar incidents are all too frequent.
Last Friday, the Planning Department chose to brush aside a public consultation - which saw 1,006 local opponents and only eight in favour - and press ahead with changes to the Hung Hom town plan, apparently to help Cheung Kong and DHL use a pier for commercial purposes.
Looking for some roots of these planning issues, and how supposed rules have often been bypassed, it is worth recalling that this is the 40th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution disturbances.
Then, the likes of Tsang Yok-sing were praising the works of Mao Zedong while Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and his police family were standing shoulder to shoulder with the colonial government.
The loyalty, in 1967, of the locally recruited police and civil service was rewarded with better pay, perks and promotions and, as far as the police was concerned until the 1974 establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, an indulgent attitude to syndicated corruption.
Senior bureaucrats learned from the colonial system to believe in their own brilliance, in leadership by a cadre of intelligent persons able to determine what was best for the rest, free from the vulgar influences of party politics.
Very high salaries and very generous pensions and perks were the reward for their supposed excellence and freedom from corruption.